


You’re Ripped At Every Edge But You’re A Masterpiece

by sinsajo



Category: One Piece
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Daddy Issues, Depression, Drama & Romance, I cant stress the WIP tag enough cause the fic is subject to change!, M/M, More tags to be added as story progresses, Narcolepsy, WIP, content rating subject to change, might be ooc so thread carefully
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-11
Updated: 2021-02-15
Packaged: 2021-03-14 22:35:14
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 7,601
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29303583
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sinsajo/pseuds/sinsajo
Summary: Ace is finally at what seems to be his breaking point — With a younger brother to raise, bills to pay, and shitty job that seems paralysingly inescapable, even his health seems to be holding on by a thin thread.He knows no one can fix him or his problems, and Marco has no intention to, either. At such a bleak moment in his life, the blonde stranger only ever seems determined to give him a reason more to smile.
Relationships: Fushichou Marco | Phoenix Marco/Portgas D. Ace, Monkey D. Luffy & Portgas D. Ace & Sabo
Comments: 14
Kudos: 43





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> First work I'm posting for this fandom and pairing :) I've been a fan of One Piece for a while, but my characterization muscles have gone soft since I stopped watching at some point years back. So, watch out, because this story will very likely have very poor canon to fanon ratio in terms of characterization! I wanted to wait until I saw canon interactions to post this so that I could tweak it, but I'm watching from the start and I'm currently on episode 72! Might take... a while.
> 
> If you're fine with some creative liberties though, go forth! Hopefully you enjoy :)
> 
> (Also sorry about the Halsey song inspired title... I guess this is the second fic I've written while having this song on repeat lmfao here's a link though, I suppose its one of this fic's theme songs!: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C092uisdqh8  
> Also, to whomst it may concern... This is losely based on personal experiences Haha!

Fifteen minutes is all he had - Not a minute more, not a minute less. In fifteen minutes he needed to reach the break room, settle down, shift his thought patterns from stress to relaxation, to stress _again_ as he remembered he had bills to pay, groceries to buy, homework to help with; then, he had just about enough time to be frustrated over how time slipped him by, and to reluctantly drag himself back to his cubicle, fighting the everpresent urge to smash everything within reach.

Working in a call center had initially seemed like an easy enough job; It had all the downsides to having to deal with customers, sure, but at least he didn’t have to see any of their faces. He also could enjoy being on his ass all day, which had initially felt like a welcome change after his last job as a waiter. He had no way of knowing just how wrong he would be, and how much worse things could always get. If there was something that really rattled Ace’s cage, it was having to put up with random, entitled strangers yelling at him from the safety of their homes, calling him cruel names and letting out their pent up steam while Ace had to absorb it all and allow it to simmer inside of him, glowing hot and restless. Like a sponge he had to absorb it all, day after day, and the escapades to the restroom that left his knuckles bruised and bloody didn’t seem to cut it anymore. He needed a job change, fast, but he also had a little brother to feed, and things weren’t looking particularly great in terms of job opportunities. It wasn’t that he wasn’t trying — by God, no one could ever say he wasn’t giving it his all to claw out of the mess he had gotten himself into. But in the meantime… He simply needed to take it. Needed to be the responsible adult and learn how to put up with this type of shit, and grow a thicker skin. This was the real world after all, wasn’t it? It wasn’t going to get any easier from here on out, and he ought to get used to it; the sooner, the better.

As he mulled over these thoughts, he sat back down at his cubicle after the brief, none-at-all relaxing break, and set his workstation to “Available” to allow the calls to flood in. His stomach knotted as soon as a call came through, and he had to apply all of his willpower to not hang up as he eyed his supervisor making rounds around the office.

Though, just as he took the call and began to chant the corporate greeting that had been hammered into him (so thoroughly, in fact, that he sometimes answered his own phone with it by accident), something began to vibrate in his pocket.

With his focus shifted, he forgot to finish the greeting and instead fished out his phone from his pocket with a quick and clumsy “Hold on, please,” far too paranoid of it being an emergency. One could never be too sure, considering his brother.

And indeed, it seemed to be important. The ID caller bouncing on his screen was that of his younger brother’s school, which made Ace shut his eyes tight as he mouthed a quiet “fuck” and yanked off his headset to answer the incoming call.

“Hello?” he spoke into his phone while his eyes darted around the office, unseeing, trying to pick up subtle clues in the line's background noise that might hint of bad news.

“Hello, Mr. Portgas?” the name was said almost with familiarity — and how wouldn’t it be, if this woman seemed to call on a weekly basis?

“Yeah, it’s Ace, what did Luffy do?” he asked before even having to be told the reason for the call. In any other situation, it would have been almost comical.

“Mr. Portgas, I’m sorry if this is a bad time, but your brother had an… accident,” the woman chose her wording carefully, and Ace’s eyes widened instantly. He wanted to reply, but all he could do was sit still and quiet as the words caught in his own throat. “Please, don’t worry, he will be alright. We already called an ambulance. The paramedics will be taking him to Central hospital,” she informed him, but Ace felt no better than before. It was impossible not to worry, especially considering she could be lying for the sake of not freaking him out. 

He shifted his eyes when he felt someone staring at him, finding his supervisor looking his way with disapproval. 

“Thank you,” Ace finally mumbled and hung up the call, quickly standing from his seat to gather his belongings and approach his boss. That previously disapproving stare quickly shifted to one of worry, but definitely not over whatever Ace was worried about, as the young man soon learned.

“... Where are you going in such a hurry?”

“Listen, I know I had to leave early yesterday too, but my brother’s in the hospital and I need to leave right now. I promise I’ll make it up to you, I can work a double shift as soon as I know he’s in stable condition to make up for this month's lost hours," Ace said, stumbling over his words as he watched the man before him with a pleading, expectant expression.

His supervisor nearly rolled his eyes at that, and let out a forced sigh meant to communicate that he was being a royal pain in the ass. Ace, in turn, wanted nothing more than to deck him on the face right then and there.

“Listen, kid,” the older man leaned in slightly, placing a hand on Ace’s shoulder. “Keep this up and it’s gonna be trouble for you. You’re leaving me short on one man right now, and the _now_ is all that counts. I don’t care about you doing overtime tomorrow or the day after, you know most of our calls-”

The rest of his unnecessary sermon seemed to drown out for Ace as he chewed on the inside of his cheek until it was raw and his mouth tasted like blood. He kept his eyes low, afraid of looking him in the eye and letting him see the furious fire growing inside of him, ready to burn. He didn’t even quite register clocking out of his shift and walking out onto the street, or particularly remembered stopping a cab at all. But before he knew it, they had already pulled up to the hospital, and he was already paying the driver his fare.

The whole process of hurrying inside the hospital and looking for Luffy was also a blur. The stuffiness in the air paired with the crowd seemed to do numbers on his already heightened anxiety, as did the occasional cry or whimper. Ace hated hospitals. He didn’t think a single human that actually liked a place so full of pain existed, but nevertheless, he was sure he was the man that hated them the most, no contest to be had.

When he finally figured out where in the emergency room his brother was being kept, he let out a relieved noise that almost sounded like a whimper. 

“Luffy, what the fuck happened?” was the first thing he said as he walked through the curtain, seeing the boy sporting a grumpy face, but otherwise looking in no worse condition than him.

“Ace! You came to see me,” he grinned when he saw his brother, only to wince in pain when he tried to sit up properly. 

“Of course I did, you dumbass,” Ace tried a smile, but on his exhausted and still anxious face it looked severely out of place. “One of the nurses said something about a fracture? Apparently they're still waiting for the x-rays to be ready to check out how bad it is.”

“Ah... I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s, like... really, _really_ broken. It hurts like hell, and looks super freaky!” Luffy chuckled, then winced again immediately after. Ace watched him trying to both laugh and whine intermittently for a moment, apparently finding his own inability to laugh without pain quite amusing. Ace pinched the bridge of his nose and closed his eyes tightly, both thanks to exasperation and thanks to his newly born headache.

“Okay, out with it. What happened?” he let out, interrupting Luffy’s noisy display.

“Nothing! I was just wrestling with Zoro when he got a little too into it,” the teen said, lifting his shoulders in a careless shrug. “Or angry. I don't know. He didn’t mean anything by it, though. I was being a little too rough, too...” he grinned, to which Ace rolled his eyes. 

“I want you to know I’m going to murder him,” Ace said cooly, to which Luffy pouted.

“No, don’t do that! it was an accident, he even apologized!”

“Oh damn, why didn't you say so! He’s _so_ selfless.”

“He really is!”

The sound of the curtain sliding caught the boys’ attention, and both brothers turned their eyes to the noise in silence. Peeking his head in was a doctor, who by the looks of his amused expression, had been overhearing their conversation.

“May I come in?” he smiled with both his lips and his eyes, which were squinting lightly behind his red rimmed glasses.

The older of the brothers nodded, shifting his eyes away when he noticed the doctor meeting his gaze directly. Silently, Ace took a seat on a chair set by the hospital bed, and looked up to see Luffy watching the stranger with interest as he stuck the x-rays on the film viewer. 

“My name is Marco, and I’ll be the one looking after you today, young man,” he introduced himself, taking a moment to scan the two faces staring up at him expectantly. “Mister-” the doctor glanced down to his clipboard, then back at the youngest, “Luffy. You have really nice bones.”

“Thank you!” the teen replied proudly, and Ace couldn’t help the smile that crept on his face. 

“You’re very welcome,” the doctor said politely, his eyes once again meeting Ace’s face. “Your… friend?” he pointed at Luffy while keeping the young man’s eyes.

“Brother.”

“Your brother took quite the fall. See this right here?” he pointed to the x-ray, and circled Luffy’s tibia on the image with the back of his pen. “That’s a fracture.”

Ace didn’t really need the doctor to point it out; even a child would have been able to see just how out of place and misaligned Luffy’s leg bone was, and it looked downright nightmarish. He was honestly surprised Luffy was handling the pain this well, pain killers considered, despite knowing he had quite a high tolerance for pain.

“My fucking God, Luffy,” Ace made a face, briefly looking at the doctor in time to catch a sympathetic glance thrown his way.

“He’ll be okay,” the blonde man assured him, looking at the boy’s swollen, deformed leg. “I’ll apply a cast to make sure the bones are aligned and heal properly. I don’t believe there’s any need for surgery at this point, the fracture was pretty clean, all things considered.”

“Woah, I always wanted to wear a cast!” Luffy interjected with a large smile, the overall mood shifting upwards instantly, “having your friends write and draw all over it sounds pretty cool, don’t you think, Ace?”

“No?” Ace snorted, seeing Luffy’s excitement falter, “knowing your friends, dicks are what they’re gonna be drawing all over that thing. Better watch your back.”

“Uh..." Luffy said, lifting an inquisitive brow, "you sure you’re not just warning me of what _you_ will do to it?” 

Ace noticed the doctor lift a hand to his mouth briefly as if to catch a small chuckle.

“I’d watch my back even at home in that case, little man,” the blonde man grinned at Luffy, who crossed his arms and pouted slightly, possibly not liking the idea of having to be on guard at all times.

“How long ‘til I can go back to walking normally?” Luffy changed the subject instead, addressing the doctor. “It hurt a lot to walk like this.”

“Yeah, try avoiding holding your weight with that leg while it’s healing, okay? It can hinder your recovery, even with the cast on. As for how long until you can go back to your regular activities,” Marco adjusted his glasses, a small frown growing on his face. “Three months is the absolute minimum time required before resuming low-effort activities, if you behave yourself and are responsible with your injury. But, I’d advise against returning to your full normal activities until after six months of recovery.”

“Six months?! Isn’t that like, half a year?!” Luffy nearly yelled, his expression horrified while he counted his fingers to make sure. “Ace!”

“That’s on you, Luff,” Ace frowned against his brother’s large, regretful eyes. “Maybe this’ll teach you to stop being such a fucking walking disaster!”

The boy started crying as if on cue, loud and dramatic, leaving the doctor’s eyes to widen in surprise momentarily. Luffy was certainly a kid, but he absolutely _wasn’t_ young enough to be the typical age that would prompt a tantrum; in Marco’s books, at least.

“He-hey,” Marco blinked a few times, all traces of whatever professional coolness he had in him gone.

“Ignore him,” Ace said grumpily, crossing his arms over his chest. But instead of heeding his advice, Marco reached into one of the pockets of his lab coat and fished out a brand new, yellow lollipop. “Here, look. This should help,” he offered it to a still crying Luffy, who rubbed his tears away to take a better look at what Marco had in his hands before snatching it away at a lightning fast speed.

“Holy shit, I can’t remember the last time I had one of these!” Luffy said excitedly, surprising the doctor with his quite impressive one-eighty. The candy was ripped open and shoved inside his mouth in no time, and Ace was quick to nag.

“What do we say?”

“Is this pineapple?” Luffy said instead, ignoring Ace.

“Yep,” Marco nodded, noticing his pager going off somewhere inside his lab coat, and nearly missing the loud chuckle that escaped the kid’s mouth.

“No way! what a coincidence. I was just craving something pineapple flavored, since your head kinda looks like one,” he said, pointing to his own head.

“Luffy!” Ace nagged him, instantly receiving his younger brother's confused eyes and pout. He definitely had no idea what he had said this time that was so bad. He was simply stating the facts.

“Don’t worry about it,” Marco smiled at Ace, an action that made the oldest of the brothers slightly nervous, considering how attractive that lopsided, lazy smile looked on him. “It’s low hanging fruit. I get that enough to be desensitized to it already.” 

Ace didn’t reply to that, and instead simply looked away, feeling his rather intense eyes to be quite intimidating in a really embarrassing way. It didn’t really matter in any case, considering the doctor had also looked away in favor of finding out what the annoying beeping was about.

“Well, we better get working on that cast. Busy day,” Marco said a bit hurriedly, though his kind smile never left his face. 

Ace briefly wondered if he would despise being inside this place any less if only everyone inside it had as soothing of an aura as Marco did. And, of course, if the sounds of pain coming from all directions magically ceased to exist, along with Ace's own negative memories and deep rooted fears.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A chance encounter lifts Ace's bleak mood for just a little while; enough to make him briefly forget about his obligations.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Grindr is an universal constant, just like Einstein said...  
> I hope you like rollercoasters!
> 
> A little content warning that there's some depressing inner dialogue after the skip, so if reading someone's thoughts as they go deeper down a hole with their dark thoughts is triggering, just stop reading after Ace enters the men's restroom, and resume reading on the paragraph that starts with "Before he knew it". I don't consider it to be awfully bad, but it might be upsetting to some. Asides from that, as far as warnings go, the graphic depictions of violence warning is still up haha!

Every day, Ace passed by a café on his way to work. He always looked in through the glass, sniffed the warm scent of coffee surrounding the building, and would keep walking without looking back.

He wasn’t entirely sure if the place was as expensive as it looked based solely on the foreign name of it, but he nevertheless forbade himself the pleasure of finding out on a daily basis. It had everything to do with the screwed way he now viewed money; a tool to keep himself and his brother alive, sheltered, fed, and not something to be used for frivolous purposes, such as finding out if the local café was truly worth it or not. No, he certainly wasn’t one that allowed himself many pleasures, at least not in recent years. He actually seemed to thrive on exactly the opposite, and took pride in being able to control his impulses and keep unnecessary expenses to a minimum, as long as they pertained to him and him alone.

But he was exhausted, fed up, and now had an additional worry hanging over his head. Luffy’s recovery wasn’t going terribly, but his brother definitely was having a hard time staying still and being obedient, despite his injury surely hurting like nothing ever hurt him before. There was something about _knowing_ that he was away from home while his brother was all alone, frustrated over being bed bound, bored out of his mind and in pain while he could do jack shit about it. It was unnerving, and he needed a change of sorts, if only to distract himself momentarily.

It really wouldn’t hurt to break routine and step inside this gloriously smelling place, just to satiate his curiosity. He could look at the menu, ask some questions if he felt the need, check the prices properly and leave. Maybe, if the coffee was cheap… He could afford a tiny indulgence.

Without allowing himself a second more of deliberation, he stepped inside the café and made his presence known unwillingly as a bell rang. The person at the counter looked his way, and so did a customer or two, by which point Ace had already ducked his head down to avoid having to look at them. They did look well dressed and like they could afford themselves this treat every morning of the week. Office workers, bankers, government officials, Ace didn’t know and didn’t care. He just wanted to know how much a small black coffee would cost.

He approached the counter slowly, raising his eyes to look at the menu high above on the wall, decorated with helpful images of the items for purchase. And he stared like that for a good while, half because the names were confusing as well as the sizing, and because he didn’t quite feel like getting anything anymore now that he was starting to get worried over nothing looking good enough to make a decision. Despite this, he felt too invested already like to just leave, too embarrassed to pretend like he forgot his wallet and make a run for it, couldn’t decide which option sounded less mediocre, and he-

“If you really can’t decide and are willing to give my recommendation a shot, they make a pretty decent cappuccino in this place.” Ace turned to see who had invaded his personal space and spoken to him so casually, feeling almost offended at the daring familiarity. Yet he was (pleasantly) surprised to actually find a slightly familiar face.

“Doctor,” Ace let out, his eyes quickly scanning the man and finding no lab coat, and no glasses.

“Marco is fine,” the blonde man said through a smile. Ace nodded, pressed his lips into a tight line, then nodded again.

“Marco. Okay,” Ace turned his head to the menu to find the cappuccino, seeing it wasn’t all that expensive, yet still was more than he was comfortable spending without feeling a tiny bit of guilt. Still… he was already here, and he now had the added obligation to either turn the doctor down in his recommendation, or continue to think, so he just blurted out his next words without much more consideration. “A cappuccino, please.”

The barista smiled, then spoke politely, “of course, what size would you like?”

“Small?” Ace shrugged, sensing eyes on him, and knowing it wasn’t just because the barista was looking at him.

“Short or Tall?”

“Um... What?” Ace frowned, his eyes darting up to the menu to see if the answer could be found there.

"The size of your coffee. Short or Tall?" the barista repeated.

“Just- Just give me a small one. The _smallest_ one,” Ace said, a little more impatient than he would have hoped for, but thankfully the barista didn’t seem to mind, and also didn’t look particularly invested in pushing the coffee sizing name agenda. 

“Okay. Wet or dry?”

Ace felt himself go from about twenty to sixty in terms of annoyance, and it showed in the way he let out a deep breath and scratched at his scalp roughly for a second. He was sure the barista simply asked for the sake of making the exchange as painful as possible.

Ace heard a brief chuckle at his back, so he turned to give the doctor a small glare, knowing he was laughing at his expense.

“Sorry,” the doctor grinned, seemingly amused at the younger man’s obvious irritation. “It’s always funny watching someone struggle over coffee. He’s asking if you’d like more, or less, foam in your coffee. Also, if I may intervene,” he said rather smugly, and Ace bit his tongue to not retort that he was already obviously intervening. “Show him the smallest cup, please?”

The barista did as asked, pulling out a tiny disposable cup to show them, and Ace wondered just how fucking hard it would have been to just show him the cups from the start.

“A little too small, huh? I might be wrong, but maybe you wanted something a little bigger?” Marco said, and Ace couldn’t help but to feel a little bit like a helpless, stupid child. Though he appreciated the help, he wasn’t entirely sure if Marco wasn’t just laughing at him and being patronizing on purpose.

“... Yeah, it’s too small,” he admitted, feeling his cheeks just barely tingling. “Give me something a little bigger than that. And just do whatever with the foam, I don’t care,” he said, his tone making it clear that any further questions would be highly advised against. The barista simply shrugged, possibly having experienced his fair share of people that acted just like Ace was acting, and deciding to not make the experience any more painful for the both of them.

“Your name?” was the barista’s final, necessary question.

“Ace,” he said, watching the man at the other end of the counter write it out on a cup, and turn his back to prepare the drink just as another barista returned to her place behind the counter to help him tend to customers.

With that out of the way, Ace fetched out his wallet to pay the girl that now was at the register, and it was all waiting from there. He watched the drink being made in silence for a moment, before realizing the doctor didn’t seem to be planning on walking away as he had initially expected.

“Thank you,” Ace told the blonde as he turned to face him again, receiving a warm smile before he got a response.

“You’re very welcome. Now, excuse me,” he said, stepping around Ace to order a drink for himself and pay the bill in about a third of the time that it took Ace to decide and buy the damn coffee. He felt a little guilty after the realization that he had been holding the man back with his indecisiveness, but he guessed it wasn’t that big of a deal considering he didn’t even look annoyed at all. 

Ace's name was called for his cappuccino in no time, and he soon was standing by the various spices and sweeteners that were at his disposal. With no intention to waste any more time, he added copious amounts of sugar to the steaming hot drink. Marco soon stood by his side to do the same, and Ace was somehow not surprised that he had an opinion to voice there, too.

“That’s a lot of sugar,” the man observed with a surprised face, opening a single small package of sweetener to add to his own coffee.

“It sure is,” he said, stirring the cup with a disposable stick. “Gotta die of something, right?”

“The doctor in me really wants to disagree,” Marco snorted, closing his cup and standing there for a moment while Ace did the same. 

The youngest of the two shifted his posture to begin walking away, unsure of how to end the encounter, but Marco acted quicker.

“You wanna sit over there and drink that with me? I could use the company,” the older man said, using his cup to cover half of his face as if he meant to either take a sip from it, or hide his expression. Ace blinked a few times, the question fully dawning on him, and he spoke before even fully grasping how odd of a situation this was.

“Uh, yeah, why not,” he shrugged and led the way to a booth, the doctor sitting straight across from him sporting what could only be described as a triumphant smile.

“Never saw you come in here before. It’s your first visit, right?” Marco tried keeping the conversation going, and Ace rolled his eyes at his words.

“What, it wasn’t obvious enough?” he snorted, hearing Marco give him a chuckle of his own.

“It really was, but it’s nothing to be ashamed of. Doing things for the first time can be nerve wrecking.”

Ace shrugged at that, blowing into the small hole in his cup and receiving the brush of scalding hot air on his lips in return, confirming for him that the coffee was way too hot to risk a sip. He wondered how long it would take for the drink to cool down enough to drink it, with how impatient he was to just try it already.

“So, what — do you usually sit down and have coffee with your patients like this when you catch them in the wild?” Ace said, unable to keep his thoughts to himself. Marco opened his mouth to retort, but he seemed to think better of his answer. Instead, he looked down at the table and smiled lightly before shaking his head.

“Not really, no. This is a first. Though, you’re not a patient. Your brother is,” he clarified, lifting a finger to him as if to punctuate his words. “If not, maybe I’d even get in trouble for this.”

Ace smiled lightly, his fingers wrapping around the pleasantly warm cup in his hands.

“Just for having coffee? Seems weirdly restrictive,” he said simply, tapping his nails on the cup. “I’m surprised you even remember, though. Luffy and me being brothers I mean, or just me for that matter. I always assumed doctors and nurses saw so many faces a day that they weren’t able to keep up with who was who, or who was in for what.”

Marco nodded slightly while listening, as if he agreed, to an extent.

“Sometimes I forget, sure,” the blonde admitted, looking just a little ashamed. “But you and your brother are a hard-to-forget pair, if I’m being honest.”

“Huh… I would have guessed you see a lot more crazy on a daily basis like for us to stick out, but I guess I was wrong. Should I feel embarrassed or proud at that?” Ace asked, his smile playful.

“Definitely proud,” Marco assured him, before taking a sip from his still hot coffee — or attempting to, at least, before wincing and sticking out his tongue in pain. "Aw, fuck," he mumbled, his brows crunching up. Ace laughed at his expense, instantly receiving Marco's eyes on him. He looked... annoyed? embarrassed? He couldn't tell, but it only fueled his fun.

"I thought doctors were supposed to be smarter than that," Ace commented, seeing Marco suck his tongue back into his mouth and squint his eyes lightly at him. He was definitely embarrassed, if the color his cheeks were slowly acquiring was anything to go by.

"I usually am smarter than this, thank you very much," he retorted, and stuck out his tongue again, seeking the relief of the cold air after his own hot mouth proved to be uncomfortable.

"If you say so," Ace plopped his elbow on the table and rested his face on his palm, propped up to look at Marco. He watched the man keep the tip of his tongue out while he checked something on his phone, and he wasn't able to help closing his eyes for a second, feeling his lids slightly heavy. The room was warm, the shop was relatively quiet, and it smelled fantastic. To say it was cozy was an understatement. He jumped lightly when he heard Marco break the silence, though he had spoken quietly so as to not disturb him much.

"Didn't get much sleep last night?"

"Huh? Uh..." Ace blinked a few times trying to will the sleepiness away. "Um..." he said, bringing his free hand to his face to rub at his eyes for a while, definitely for longer than he even realized. It was as if he was using that motion as a distraction while he snoozed off for just a moment, unable to fully snap out of it. "I thought I did," he said finally, frowning, and meeting Marco's eyes. 

The man had copied his position; face held by his hand and his elbow resting on the table, with his eyebrows high on his face from something akin to worry.

"You look quite tired," he said, and Ace nodded.

"Never been a morning person," he reasoned it off with a shrug, deciding to slap his face lightly a few times to will away the stupor. "Anyway, tell me a bit about yourself. Do you have any hobbies aside from... coffee, and being a doctor?" He wasn't about to confess it, but he was asking more out of the need to keep himself awake, rather than out of the need to know more about his brother's doctor.

Though, Marco smiled at the question, apparently liking the interest; for as superficial as it seemed.

"Let's see... I actually prefer tea, but it won't wake me up as good as coffee does. I'm a libra, a bird person, and I have quite the large family... Sometimes I like to paint, but I'm really not that good yet. I'm also not good at introductions."

Ace snickered, then laughed, then surprised himself with the inability to stop laughing. Marco chuckled along for a moment, confusion growing along with Ace's odd laugh. Of course he meant it all more as a joke than anything, but he knew it hadn't been all that funny, if at all.

"What?" Marco finally asked, no longer chuckling, and instead looking just a tiny bit worried over having made a fool of himself somehow.

"I'm so sorry, it's just that-'' he cut himself off to laugh again, by which point Marco frowned, impatient. "Sorry, sorry, it's just that I’m... _pretty_ sure I read a bio like that almost word for word somewhere on Grindr, it just took me off... guard, when you..." he trailed off, realizing that maybe what he said hadn't been all that appropriate. He always prided himself on having a better mouth filter than Luffy, but that of course didn’t mean he couldn’t have his moments here and there.

He lifted his eyes slowly to look at Marco, ready to see him offended or disgusted at everything he was implying, but instead his face was flushed, and his eyes were wide.

 _Wait a second_.

"That was _you_?" Ace said a little louder than he had anticipated, clear shock in his voice.

"Of course not," Marco said, but Ace was already pulling out his phone.

"I really do think it was, hold on a sec, let me just..." he scrolled through his phone while Marco planted his palm against his face, impossibly embarrassed.

"You really don't need to do that," Marco all but begged from behind his palm, but Ace was already showing him his phone screen with a shit-eating grin.

"Aha! This can’t not be you. Phoenix_M_45: doctor, bird person, large family, paint-"

"Okay- _fine_ , you win, that's me. Good job, detective. Can we move on?" he said, nearly exasperated while Ace continued to eye the profile with newfound interest.

"You don't have any clear pictures of yourself. I don't swipe right on profiles like that," he said before being able to bite his tongue. He unglued his eyes from his phone when he heard Marco hum.

"Yeah. I noticed."

It took Ace a few seconds to register the implications of that, and when he did, he nearly regretted the shirtless, clear faced picture he held in his own profile. He knew it'd come back to bite him on the ass eventually; he just had hoped it wouldn't be so soon, and he could instead continue to enjoy the positive attention it got him, whenever he needed it. He also wondered at what point Marco might have connected the dots between the face in that profile and the face sitting in front of him; if it had been just fifteen minutes ago, or days ago when Luffy got hurt.

“Ah… so you’re a liar. That’s why you remembered me, I knew it was a little weird,” Ace focused on his phone again, taking one last look at Marco’s profile before clicking back to see his own, as if to make sure that stupid thirst trap was still there. He heard Marco chuckle, and he looked up to give him a mock-disapproving glare.

“Sorry. Would you have preferred I greeted you by your profile name? Maybe it’s just me, but that would have been creepy, don’t you think?”

“I guess,” Ace snorted, noticing the mood between them had changed slightly, thanks to the unspoken admission of Marco having found Ace attractive enough to both see if Ace showed the same interest in-app, and to actually approach him in public. 

At least he was ballsy, he’d give him that, considering he had quite clearly rejected his interest online.

"... What does 'bird person' even mean?" Ace decided on another approach to the conversation as he stroked his own chin, thoughtful.

"Like 'dog person'. I like birds," he offered with a smile, his previous good humor unyielding. “I have a cockatiel. I also have a few more birds, but Pops got teary eyed when I said I wanted to take ‘em with me when I moved out for good, so I left them under his care.”

Ace nodded with a smile, thinking that was pretty cute. Guys that liked animals were usually a safer bet against those that did not. Though he also felt a pang of jealousy; He’d have pets of his own if only they had the space and money, since Luffy was pretty obnoxious about wanting one.

“What did you think it meant?” Marco let out a brief chuckle, and Ace shrugged.

“That you had a giant bird costume that you dressed up in to terrorize the local children with, maybe,” Ace said, serious.

“Don't expose me like that... It's only a side hustle. The real thrill is terrorizing them with needles," Marco said, and Ace fully believed him, at least for a second. He wouldn’t put it past a doctor; Terrorizing children was just in their nature.

Ace remembered his coffee, and so he lifted it to his lips to try out the temperature and take a tiny sip before he felt his phone vibrating. As if on cue, Marco’s own beeper went off, and the man fetched it from his front shirt pocket to squint at it lightly with a rather serious expression.

“Damn,” the doctor mumbled displeased.

“Fuck,” Ace let out, not as much for the call itself, but because he somehow _just_ remembered to check the time on the corner of the screen. He was three minutes short of being a dead man. “I’m gonna be late for work,” he said hurriedly, standing up from his seat and answering the phone at the same time. As he hurried away with his coffee in his hand and his phone between his shoulder and his face, he briefly remembered Marco. He turned around just enough to see him out of the corner of his eye, and speaking over the person on the phone, he spoke to the blonde man. “Sorry, thanks for- whatever that was. See you around!” he waved him off clumsily, effectively failing at juggling more than one task at a time as he hurried through the door and into the busy street.

Marco waved a few times silently despite not being looked at, the small, half assed smile at his lips betraying his disappointment. With a sigh, he decided it was time to head to the hospital himself. It was only by sheer coincidence that he gave Ace’s seat one last glance, and saw he had left something behind.

  
  


✦

  
  


Ace made it into the building just about fifteen minutes past the start of his shift. 

With great remorse, he dumped the coffee in the trash before making his way into the elevator to his floor, knowing that arriving late with a cup of coffee would give his supervisor extra fuel to make a huge deal out of his tardiness. Though after about ten minutes of being scolded for what seemed to be the fifth time this week alone, he felt like he could have afforded holding onto that coffee no matter how much it might have fueled the fire. At least that way he’d have something to look forward to, for as little as the indulgence would last. And maybe that way, he might have been able to hold on to the fleeting good mood Marco had put him under, for just a little while longer.

Feeling pissed off out of his mind and already exhausted, he finally made it into his cubicle, and begrudgingly set his status to ‘available’ to begin working. He crossed his fingers with the hope that today he wouldn't receive any unpleasant calls, and that no one would wear his patience thin. Though he knew it was nothing more than wishful thinking.

He managed to keep his emotions in check up until lunch rolled in, which was when he realized he would have to go hungry; the wasted coffee seeming like an even bigger issue than it had previously been. He had lost his wallet at some point between the coffee shop visit and his run to work, and he felt more than a little distressed. His ID, driver’s license, his credit and debit cards, the spare money he had for bus fares and food — all gone.

Ace felt himself shaking not only from anger at himself, but also from frustration. Getting all those documents back would mean running long, tedious errands that he felt too tired to put up with and had no time for. Money was tight enough to really make him resent the loss of that pocket money, too, which had frustratingly been a lot more than he usually carried to top it all off. 

He considered the possibility of his pocket having been picked in the street, and the thought made him irrationally angry, despite it being nothing but a theory. He was definitely starting to lose his composure. 

Seeing as he’d eat nothing at all, and seeing as he still could use that free time to not be sitting in his cubicle, he decided to spend those forty-five minutes in the men’s restroom alternating between punching the stall and crying from frustration alone. He felt pathetic, stupid and ashamed, both for losing his temper this badly and because his reasons for losing it were rather ridiculous in the first place. But that only fueled his fire. He was angry. Or rather, furious out of his mind, more than he had been in a while. Not only with himself but also with the world. With God.

He didn’t ask to be born. In his mind, there really was no reason for life to be punishing him so much, so often, without letting him catch a break. He resented having been kicked out into the world without him ever having a say in it — if only he’d have known life would be so full of shit, he would have refused to be ripped out of his mother after his due date. If only he’d have _known,_ he would have killed his father himself for having the nerve to not wear a condom; the gall to not ask Rouge to abort their little accident.

With his thoughts jumping and clutching onto his father, his emotions seemed to go into overdrive. Somehow, someway, it all had to be that man’s fault. For existing, for conceiving him, for abandoning him and his mother, for dying before he had a chance to really tell him how much he hated him. 

Life was so unfair. Death was even worse. And yet, sometimes it seemed so seductive, it was hard to negate its allure.

He realized he couldn’t control his erratic, spiraling thoughts.

Before he knew it, he was sobbing, and his lunch break had definitely ended a while ago. It was humiliating to have to go back outside looking like he did — puffy red face and eyes — but he had no choice. And so he left the restroom with his head held low, and sat down at his spot while one of his coworkers eyed him carefully, recognizing the none-too-subtle telltale signs of an impressive breakdown.

Of course, his tardiness didn’t go unnoticed, and before Ace managed to get back to work his supervisor was already at his back, reprimanding, humiliating, demanding Ace to turn and look at him when he was being spoken to, demanding Ace to stop being such a useless jackass, and finally, begging for help and for someone to get Ace to stop pounding his face with his fists.

“ _I’ve fucking had it with you!_ ” Ace growled out like an animal, his blood boiling, his eyes bulging out and his teeth gritting.

He slammed his fists down until he felt the man's hot blood clinging to his knuckles, and didn't stop even when he both heard and felt a satisfying _crunch_.

“Ace, stop it! You’re gonna kill him, please!” someone yelled frantically by his ear, trying to knock some sense into him while another two people tried to hold him back by the shoulders. But he wouldn't listen, and couldn't, as his own heartbeat drummed in his ears loud enough to muffle everything else.

He resembled a wounded animal, uncaring for the consequences of lashing out and mauling whoever tried to take advantage of his vulnerable state; fighting back with all he had left in him, and then some.

"Get-get him off me!" Their boss gurgled from where he was flat on the floor, one of Ace knees still digging into his stomach. He was trying to cover his face with his forearms as blood gushed out from his nose and his split lip; the slimy liquid bubbling and foaming at his mouth as it mixed with his saliva whenever he tried to draw a breath.

It took another person to finally hold Ace back enough for the other man to crawl away on all fours, his expression a mixture of both fright and outrage. 

"You're gonna regret this, you fucking psychopath!" He managed to splutter out, his frightened gaze fixed on Ace's wild, unfocused eyes. And for a long moment, the bloodied man was certain that if it weren't for the other guys, he would have been as good as dead. “I’m calling the cops,” was the last thing he said as he scurried away towards the restroom to try and control some of the bleeding, and most importantly, to hide.

Ace knew that was his cue to get the hell out of there, but his anger seemed to have suddenly evaporated, along with his overall energy; what’s more, he felt as if he couldn’t move a single muscle, and the realization made him panic instantly. If it weren’t for the hands still holding onto him, he would have collapsed on the floor and slammed his head on the ground.

“Dude, are you okay?” someone asked near his face as he was slowly lowered to the floor, but he couldn’t find the energy to move, or to speak. He simply fell back against the carpet like a dead weight, knowing himself watched and hearing everyone around him asking frantic questions. His body was fully paralyzed asides from his wide eyes, which darted all around aimlessly in panic. It felt as if he was made of stone, rigid, cold, impossibly afraid. The thought of this being his new permanent state was enough to make his heart drum erratically inside of him, pumping ice through his veins.

The terror seemed to last for excruciatingly long minutes as everyone around him called his name, touched him and theorized about what was wrong with him, but he soon regained full control of his body again; just as suddenly and quick as he had lost it. 

Ace sat up with some trouble, breathing harshly from the fear, feeling dizzy and still unexplainably weak. Though the people around him kept questioning both his sudden outburst and his health, he decided to ignore them all for the sake of stumbling out of the building at once, needing to see his brother.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Please do let me know what you think if possible! Thank you for the support thus far ❤️ it means a lot
> 
> Edit-- Im gonna cry ive been buried under so much work that the update is taking FOREVER ugh but it will come... it will come.


End file.
